Apology for the delayed updates. My term paper would start, so the delay and irregularity.
I promise to keep up as much as I can...
Some kind of discretion from the readers, voting, gifting, commenting would surely boost the author's motivation...please do!
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It was the howlings of the foxes or the wolves that were not clear, but they took over the silence of the night.
He was sleeping on one of the trees, perched up on its branch before hearing that commotion.
Some horses neighing, their galloping noises approaching, and a huge roaring resonated across the valley.
"I see something up there!"
And that was enough to make him wake up, climb down the tree, be scared for his life, and run forward, unconsciously or consciously entering inside the forest in stiff darkness.
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No lights could seep in through the dense canopies of the forest.
It remained dark throughout the day and the months of the year.
Unless a moon night was up with the light from the full moon illuminating the forest from inside.
No wonder its inside was not visible to anyone from the outside. Nobody knew what it was inside, who resided in it, or what kind of beings.
The Princess had chosen to walk with slow-paced steps as levitating here was not possible if she did not want to collide against the high trees.
They said that even the trees were here susceptible to being aware if someone forbidden had entered the forest.
So she tried to move forward with feeble steps, not wanting anybody or anything to know of her presence exactly.
It would have been hard for any being, more so for a mortal to even see anything here as the darkness was all overwhelming.
It helped to be them immortal with a stronger sense of vision, enabling them to see through even at night.
But a point to be noted here was that the night vision of a vampire was no better than a werewolf. The latter had the upper hand over the former in that department.
She did not cut her way through the trees. She dared not to do so. She had heard of enough folklores to do that.
Instead, she carefully navigated the forest, keeping away from any contact with the big trees, their trunk, or the small bushes going around them.
Moving her head and body to avoid getting touched by the hanging long canopies, which felt like coming up from the sky that was being overshadowed by the forest.
It was difficult to decide which was the North or the South or even the East or the West because it looked the same everywhere in all directions.
She was sure at least for the time being that she was headed North because she had entered it through that border.
But the longer she dived inside, the deeper she got inside the dense forest, the more confused she would be about in which direction exactly she was headed.
Could it be why that many lost their way back from out of the forest?
She had trained herself from the best navigator of the kingdom, who had traveled overseas to learn the art of navigation, not getting lost and the finest point teller was the sky, even if your compass stopped working.
And since she could not get the hint of the sky up, almost and completely invisible, made so by the large mahogany and sandalwood trees, so many varieties.
Their leaves, evergreen throughout the year made it impossible to see even if it was still daytime or night.
The travelers told that it was how the weather was in the Forelands during the winters when the surrounding would remain dark even if it was daytime.
Six months of darkness and six months of sunlight was how the Forelands were.
And perhaps this could it be why was not inhabited by mortals and mostly even immortals were unheard of residing there.
It was forbidden either way for the beings of the earth as the Ancients had claimed to be.
Ambrosia could not help but feel the same about the Mirror Forest. Forbidden lands were said to be forbidden for a reason of course.
Since she was already in, there was no turning around anymore. And more so, she knew that she would lose her say if she decided to turn to any other direction and not just keep walking forward...the preassumed North in her opinion.
The sudden feeling of warmth, made her want to get rid of the hoodie on her cloak but she did not want to let anyone, if present see even her face.
The cloak had to be tied from head to bottom to make you completely invisible.
Since she was only having it over her shoulders, the shepherd boy had seen her and so did his mortal sister.
She did not want to commit that mistake again. She would rather suffocate for a bit or longer than let anyone know of her presence and spot her.
But as long as the cloak was over her body, Hamza or no other vampires with the same ability to trace her whereabouts in the future would not be able to do so.
She suspected that the night could have been over and it might be daytime, with the sun out, since it was the middle of summer, which could be why she was sweating out.
She could not even tell of the time ever since she started walking inside deeper and deeper than the first time.
It could be more than a few couple of hours or beyond but her ability to take notes was slipping away.
It could be the doing of the forest. She could not tell otherwise. She felt drowsy and all of a sudden, almost gave up.
As her feet slowed down, her steps becoming unstable, she knew that something was up because she was not a mortal to feel tired just by walking a few miles or more than that.
She was aware that unknown things could happen and that had no explanation to once you were in the forest.
And someone going inside a forbidden land took that risk when breaking the ancient code of conduct.
Nothing to be scared about or voice out your complaints in the air...she fell face flat on the ground, her vision turning black.